The South Plains College rodeo team competed in Canadian, Texas, at the Frank Philips College Rodeo from Sept. 25-27 and they had several athletes shine in competition.
Leading the way was Trey Adams, who captured the Champion Heeler title, and he also advanced to the short round after finishing 2nd in Team Roping.
SPC Rodeo Head Coach Kerry Doster gave his thoughts on what led to Adams’ success.
“He was just being solid and not trying to make something bigger than what it was. He ran the steers he had and did his job on the cattle that he had,” Doster said. “A lot of these kids try to do more than they have to and then they wind up making mistakes, and he just went out there and did his job. It was really good.”
Adams executed the most with his outstanding weekend, but several of his teammates put together great performances as well.
Joining him in the short round were teammates Colt Call and Cactus Barnes after an 8th place effort in Team Roping, as well as Zaran Kirkpatrick after placing 8th in Goat Tying and Kassidy Robertson after placing 5th in Breakaway Roping.
All four them improved upon their efforts in the short round as Robertson placed 4th in Breakaway Roping, Kirkpatrick placed 7th in Goat Tying and Call and Barnes placed 6th in Team Roping.
Those performances were a part of what Coach Doster said was a good weekend for his team, but for him there’s still a lot to be desired.
The team still isn’t where they want to be yet, and Coach Doster elaborated on why.
“A lot of our freshmen are making the rodeo a bigger deal than it is, and the nerves get to them,” Doster said. “This is the youngest team I’ve had in a long time, so we’ve just got to get them settled in. We need to take the runs we do at practice and carry them along to do the same stuff at the rodeos.”
The saying as old as time, practice makes perfect, will be in effect for the SPC rodeo squad as they simply look to replicate their practice efforts.
From Coach Doster’s tone regarding his freshmen, if they can do that, they’re more than capable of putting on great performances.
Their next rodeo competition starts on Oct. 23 at New Mexico Junior College, so they’ll have plenty of time to sharpen up.
“We’ve got three weeks till we compete again, so we can work things out and get these guys back where they need to be, where we can perform at a better level at the next rodeo,” Doster said.
Coach Doster noted the break is nice given they just competed in back-to-back rodeos the past two weeks.
They’ll use the time not only to improve but also to recover from the physical toll of competition.